Christmas after All

by Kathryn Lasky

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

When I was in elementary school I loved the Dear America series. I mainly read ones that were centered around civil/WWWs and as this was one of the happier ones in the series, and I have always preferred dark not-so-happy-ever-after endings, Christmas After All never made it to my bedside table. This installment was a cute Christmas read I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was still in elementary school. It felt like the author was aiming for a Little Women Christmas and didn't quite succeed. Lady, Clem, Gwen and Minnie our journalist, could be Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy with their young brother Ozzie as Laurie (although without the romance) along with Marmee and Hannah represented. It is not fair to compare any novel to Little Women but it did seem to have undertones, giving up meals for those less fortunate and selling beloved items that were very similar to Jo's reasoning to cut her hair.

It was a sweet Christmas tale with a visiting relation showing the family holiday spirit and I did like the epilogue where "dreams came true, all the children going to college and Minnie achieving her dream to become a pilot, but overall it Dear America didn't hold the same thrill as it did when I was ten.